Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S-Mexico Border [Paperback]

Lawrence Taylor (Author), Maeve Hickey (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1930618077 | ISBN-13: 978-1930618077 | Edition: first

Evoking startling contrasts, brutalities, radiant beauty, and resilient people, these astonishing black-and-white photographs and penetrating essays reveal the ironic embrace of Nogales. The would-be immigrant caught in the tunnel between Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona, knows life is dangerous and surprising. Being robbed by roving bands of teenagers or even being flushed through to the United States by a torrential rain only to be caught by border patrol agents are both possibilities. In Nogales, Arizona, pampered California produce brokers in their hotels float lazily unaware, just yards from the tunnel that brings in immigrants and drugs. In Nogales, Sonora, old cobblestone neighborhoods meander into new ramshackle colonias towards the edge of the city, and a group of tunnel kids make a home in the house of a jailed drug lord. Yet beneath the harsh realities there is another cultural world that flows softly and easily over the border, like the Anglo and Mexican ranchers with intricately tooled boots who cross cattle from Mexico to the United States or the Mexican-American mariachi singer with a beaming smile and an aunt who wishes she would stick to country-western. A paltry Mexican bullfighting arena holds the anxious young picador awaiting his first trial and a handsome matador, having just skirted death, who ceremoniously presents his hat to an admiring fan. And just beyond the late-night taco truck in Arizona, a homemade shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe glimmers above Nogales Wash with outstretched arms.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In the minds of faraway policymakers, a fortified, floodlit steel wall separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora. Real places, though, never begin and end quite where they're supposed to. Agile wall-jumpers, Maeve Hickey and Lawrence Taylor lead their readers from one nation to the other, turning north here, south there, showing how dreams and disappointments, friends and enemies, are much the same on either side of the line. Offering an unaccustomed view of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, theirs is an eye-opening journey. --Gregory McNamee, writer and journalist

Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S.-Mexico Border, an exploration of 'both cities' named Nogales, in Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora, offers an exquisitely beautiful yet disturbing look at the fronterra life of the Southwest. The high-quality black and white photographs by Maeve Hickey and the first-rate prose of travel writer Lawrence Taylor paint a vivid portrait … --Steve Jahrling, The Farmington Daily Times, 6 June 2003

Hickey and Taylor's accounts of life in the two Nogaleses are heartfelt and well told.... Ambos Nogales is a worthwhile read that will rest nicely on any border bookshelf. Its lucid and frequently lovely observations are presented in context but largely without interpretation, and that's a good thing. --Jim Carvalho, Tucson Weekly

About the Author

Formally trained as a painter, artist Maeve Hickey works in several media, including photography. Her works have been exhibited internationally. Writer and traveler Lawrence Taylor is a New Yorker who lives in Dublin and works on the Mexican border. He is professor and head of the anthropology department of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has written dozens of articles and numerous books on communities in the United States, along the Mexican border, and in Ireland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: School of American Research Press; first edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930618077
• ISBN-13: 978-1930618077
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,117,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars compelling reading and imagery of too often ignored place, March 26, 2003

By 

Kathleen Williamson (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S-Mexico Border (Paperback)

I found myself devouring each word and picture in this book while flying home from Madrid to my home, Tucson, Arizona, recently. It is beautifully written and eye-openingly informative for any reader. The descriptions are also accurate, about which I can attest as an active inhabitant of this fronterra, living in nearby Tucson and often working in Nogales areas. The pictures (a big difference from photographs) draw you into the experience of the subject in tender ways, while also being technically excellent quality. This is perhaps the best writing and photography to date by the increasingly infamous Hickey-Taylor team. bravo!!
Kathleen Williamson, J.D., Ph.D, CD - prose and song writer, musician, anthropologist, lawyer, etc.,